The Stocking
by TuesdayNovember
Summary: Written for the DG Forum's Christmas Challenge. Ginny never would have expected to get any sort of present from Draco Malfoy, but when she meets him on Christmas, she's subjected to his benevolence.


**Written for the DG Forum's Christmas Challenge.**

**Prompt:** Tackle a non-typical facet of the holidays, which means the common sights (like mistletoe, Weasley sweaters, and candy canes) that feature strongly in Christmas fics are to be avoided. That said, the drabble/story must include one common Christmas element: all stories must mention or feature "Christmas stockings".

**Merry Christmas, everyone!**

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It was colder than she would have imagined, and she could have sworn the clouds of breath hanging in the air turned to ice and fell to the ground before they had a chance to be carried away by the cold talons of the wind. Ginny pulled the fur tighter.

_How does something like this even _happen_?_ She thought, not for the first time that night.

In her haste to leave the flat and Apparate to the Burrow, she'd forgotten her wand on the kitchen table. The spells around the apartment locked her out as soon as she'd left, and without her wand, she had no way of getting in, and no way of getting to the Burrow.

She'd already tried to _accio_ her wand out _and_ Apparate wandlessly. But the former had done nothing but send her wand rolling off the table, and the latter had resulted – very helpfully – in her reappearing, after being painfully squeezed, about a foot away.

She cursed loudly and paced in front of the building. _I can wait for someone else to go in or out_, she thought. _Or maybe I can…can…_but nothing else came to her.

_Late for Christmas dinner yet again, Ginny Weasley. Mother will be so pleased. _

She kicked at a snow bank, and was rewarded with a cold wetness seeping through the seams of her boots.

The stream of words that tumbled loudly and indistinctly from her mouth would have made a sailor blush.

"Charming as ever, I see," A drawling voice said behind her.

Ginny, taken thoroughly by surprise, let out a little shriek and jumped.

She whirled around to face the man behind her. "What are you doing here, Malfoy?" she said, her voice more curious than belligerent, though it would be a lie to say there was no bellicose undertone.

Draco regarded her for a moment, and as his eyes took in her obvious cold and the wet patch that extended up the better part of her left calf, his mouth twisted into a smirk. "I could ask the same of you," he said.

Ginny had to fight back against the urge to snap 'I asked you first!' instead, she raised her chin ever so slightly and said, "I live here, Malfoy."

"Oh?" he said, one eyebrow raised. "You live in a snow bank? Hm, in hindsight I suppose I shouldn't have assumed anything better than that."

Ginny bit back a thousand curses. "What are you doing here, Malfoy?" she asked, belligerence more evident this time. "And I don't live in a snow bank," she snapped, "I live in the building."

Draco, an amused smirk still dancing on his lips, regarded her for a moment before answering. "It just so happens that I'm visiting someone in that building."

Ginny tamped down her rising hope. "You're going inside?"

"As intelligent as ever, I see. What difference does it make if I am?"

But she didn't dare tell him the truth. "I am as well," she said, hoping that she sounded as haughty as he did, but secretly suspecting that for as much as she raised her chin and attempted to look down her nose at him, she was failing.

"So you left your building to visit someone inside it?"

"_No_, Malfoy. I'm not visiting anyone. I just forgot something inside," when she saw him look of amused disbelief, she improvised wildly. "Christmas stockings, if you must know."

But he looked no less disbelieving, and in hindsight, Ginny decided she probably could have chosen something better. Draco no longer seemed particularly interested in her, though, as he had passed her by, and was marching up the walk towards the doors.

Ginny darted after him, trying her best to look casual. Draco spared her a glance and nothing else.

When he reached the doors not a moment later, he looked expectantly at Ginny, but she made no move to unlock the doors, so with a look of resigned annoyance, he drew his wand and muttered the incantation.

The doors swung back, and Ginny walked in. She turned back to face Draco. "Thank you," she said primly.

Draco gave no response beyond a tiny inclination of his head, which Ginny only saw in a blur, as she had already begun to whirl back around and up to her flat.

Draco rolled his eyes and pressed the glowing green button of the lift, waiting for it to rumble to a halt before him.

Ginny sped up the stairs, only halfway there and already wondering if it would have been quicker for her to have taken the lift. But it was too late now, and she ran onwards, hoping that she wasn't going to be too late.

When she arrived outside her door, out of breath and nervous, she paused a moment to catch her breath. Once she'd regained her breath, she rummaged through her handbag for the key, found it after what felt like an eternity, and unlocked the door.

She darted inside, not bothering to close the door after her, and rushed into the kitchen.

The wand wasn't on the table.

Ginny thought she was going to have a heart attack. _And on Christmas, too._ _They won't find me until next year. Everyone will wonder what happened to me. Mum will be so disappointed that I couldn't come to dinner_.Her melancholy train of thought would have continued had she not kicked her wand as she walked around the table.

Looking down, she noticed that the hard thing she'd sent rolling across the floor was not, in fact, a Christmas ornament, but her wand. She picked it up, feeling a good deal less tense as she did so. In fact, she almost smiled before remembering that she was going to be very, very late for dinner.

So, wand in hand, she skidded across the floor towards the still open door. In her haste, it wasn't until she was a foot from the doorway that she noticed the figure leaning on the doorjamb.

"Malfoy, what—?"

His mouth twisted into an almost amused smirk. "Forgot Christmas stockings, did you?"

Ginny had no clue how much he had seen, but she held strong and raised her chin. "Yes I did, Malfoy. And now I'd thank you to please get out of my way. I have a dinner to attend."

But he didn't budge. "And where might those stockings be?"

"I shrunk them and put them in my bag. Not that it's any of your business."

"And was this before or after you found your wand?" Cold laughter danced behind his words.

Ginny's lips tightened. "I thought you had someone to visit," she said sourly.

"Oh I do," he said. "But they can wait."

"Well that's lovely for them," she pushed past him, "but I have someplace to be, and I'm already late."

Draco stepped back to allow her room to lock the door. "Christmas dinner at the Weasley home?" He asked. "I've always been curious about how they get so many of you into such a small place. The enlarging charms you family must have to use…" he trailed off, seemingly lost in thought.

Ginny scowled and, ignoring him, began her way to the lift, this time not flustered enough to tear down the stairs.

To her chagrin, Draco followed her there.

Once they'd reached the lift, Draco spoke again. "It'd be a shame for you to go to your Weasley gathering without a stocking, you know."

Ginny's hand froze halfway to the glowing green button, and she turned to face him. "Excuse me?"

"A stocking, Weasley."

"Why?"

He smirked, "Christmas benevolence," and from a pocket withdrew a shrunken red stocking that he enlarged and handed to an appalled-looking Ginny. "Merry Christmas, Weasley," he said, and, snickering quietly, turned away, walking back down the hall.

Ginny held the stocking in one hand, looking at it curiously as she pressed the button for the lift. Not entirely trusting Draco to have given her anything purely from the goodness of his heart, she prodded at it with her wand, making sure it was safe as she waited for the lift to arrive.

She was outside a few minutes later, and once she'd crossed the anti-Apparation barrier around the building, she drew her wand and felt the familiar, sickeningly constricting feeling of Apparation.

Not a moment later, she was standing outside the Burrow. Ginny took a moment to regain her balance before making her way to the door and knocking.

"Ginny!" The door was flung open and she found herself face-to-face with her mother.

She was ushered inside, and sometime during the crush of celebration, she had hung the stocking on the fireplace.

George was the first one to notice it. Halfway through the pudding, the stocking began to turn green around the edges, colour slowly seeping inwards. The top of the stocking, initially blank and white, had been emblazoned with 'D. MALFOY' in sparking green script.

Ginny covered her face. Unfortunately, that didn't stop everyone else from noticing. Nor did it stop the now emerald green stocking from shouting "Merry Christmas! Merry Christmas!" very, very loudly.

_Oh, I should have known Malfoy would do something awful!_ She thought in horror as her family turned to look at the offending article.

"Ginny," Ron said slowly, turning a shocking shade of white, "what's going on?"

But she was beyond words.

Arthur managed to quiet the stocking, and in the silence that followed, all Ginny could think of was how to make sure Draco would get a singing Easter egg in April.

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**So, did you like it? Reviews are lovely presents. (hint hint)**


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